Szechuan Mountain House

Szechuan Mountain House is a big Chinese restaurant in Flushing that specializes in Szechuan peppercorn-heavy dishes. No matter what you order, your meal starts here with complimentary homemade pickled cabbage and ends with cold mung bean soup. In between, we’d suggest getting the mapo tofu, which is both stomach-vibrating and delicious, as well as the pork belly with garlic. It’s possible you’ve seen pictures of it on social media: it comes with cucumbers and light-pink, thinly sliced pork slabs hanging neatly over a rack that looks like something you’d use to dry jeans. Combined with a helping of garlic paste on the side of the plate, the cold cucumber and fatty pork will temporarily convince you this is the only way we should be eating pork belly.

Szechuan Mountain House is open for indoor dining, outdoor dining, and takeout - and they also have a location in the East Village in case that’s more convenient to you.